Steps

• Prepare the shortcrust by mixing all the ingredients in a bowl until you get a small loaf.

  👉 With the ingredients of this recipe, you get a small pie equivalent to half a standard pie. Alternatively: prepare a ‘normal’ shortcrust pastry (in this case with oil, but you can choose any shortcrust from the blog) and then divide the dough in half (and bake it half at a time).

  

• Roll out the shortcrust directly on the bottom of the perforated basket, which is non-stick, or lined with parchment paper.

  😉 If you have the specific perforated parchment paper for air fryer, great, otherwise it is also fine to use regular parchment paper and pierce it at home (as I did, simply using a toothpick, but I know for sure that some are more meticulous than I am and pierce it with a hole punch):

  

• ☝ I recommend not leaving the parchment paper edges too high because if they touch the heating element, they catch fire.

  As with all pies, complete the edge with a cord of dough:

  

• Add the jam. I used about 150 grams.

  

• And then decorate with classic strips, or with cords, or with decorations made with cookie cutters, in short, as your imagination dictates.

  For example, like this:

  

• Or like this.

  (The “ciao” inscription aside, the squiggles were supposed to be streamers 😄 but I had little dough left… after all, sometimes the thought is what counts! no?)

  

• Bake the pie in the air fryer by initially setting it to 392°F.

  After 5 minutes, lower the temperature to 356°F.

  Continue cooking for another 10 minutes.

  Towards the end of the time (the last 3-4 minutes), open and check the pie and, if necessary, lower the temperature to 320°F.

  Let the pie cool on the rack (but removed from the basket so it disperses the heat better) (it’s better not to risk breaking it while it’s hot), then extract it.

  
• 

• This pie you see in the next photo was the very first test I did of baking pie in the air fryer. It looks rough because it was intended as just a test, and I had spread it by hand. The jam is so red not due to excess saturation of the photo but it is so naturally: it is my homemade wild plum jam.

  

• This pie, instead, I made yesterday morning, with strawberry jam (packaged) and a CIAO dedicated to my daughter, who was on the train just as I was preparing the pie.

  Then as soon as Flavia arrived, we ate it all (although it was still a bit warm).

  

• Finally, the trick:

  One essential thing about the air fryer is that achieving the bottom browning is quite unlikely. At least in models with a removable basket like the two air fryers I’ve had so far, the only ones I’ve tried personally (so far). Having the heating element only on top, the pie rarely browns on the bottom.

  Insisting on prolonging the cooking is not useful because you risk overcooking the top of the pie.

  Here is how the bottom of my ‘ciao’ pie from this morning looks. I assure you it was cooked, not browned as you’re used to with the traditional oven, but cooked.

  

• If you don’t like it looking so pale, if it weren’t a pie with jam, I would suggest flipping it upside down for a few minutes, but it is evident that since there is jam, you can’t do that.

  With the first pie, I had done a test that turned out to be really effective, a real trick that I cannot help but reveal to you. 😉 Just heat the crepe plate, remove the pie from the fryer basket, and place it on the plate (or a non-stick pan) for a very brief time, I would say half a minute.

  I was so anxious not to mess up the test that I forgot to photograph this step. But I have a photo of the slice, in which the browning of the base is clearly noticeable.

  For me, it is an optimal solution. If you try, let me know!!

  Enjoy! 😋